Analysis Of D.W. Griffith’s 1915 Film, Birth of a Nation (Movie Review Sample)

Name: Instructor: Course: Date: Analysis Of D.W. Griffith’s 1915 Film, Birth of a Nation D.W. Griffith’s 1915 Birth of a Nation is a film produced during the civil war towards the end of reconstruction based on the Clansmen book by Thomas Dixon that first premiered on February 8th, 1915. The film featured two families, the Cameron and Stoneman family, where the Cameron family is represented as a dissident home loyal to the Confederate cause, and the Stonemans family as an abolitionist unionist family during the civil war. The analysis of D.W. Griffith’s 1915 Birth of a Nation film will be of great significance in demonstrating and understanding the differences between the film and contemporary historians' reconstruction standpoints and how these variances affect American citizens' reconstruction subjects. The conflicts between the reconstruction perspectives of the film and modern historians are of great significance because they may positively and negatively affect how the American community reason and deal with reconstruction today, for instance, by promoting extreme racism or civilization of the black community. The reconstruction period occurred after the American Civil War (1865 to 1877) and was primarily influenced by the session crisis of 1820 to 1860. According to Perman and Murrell Taylor, the reconstruction period occurred when the United States contended the issues of reintegrating the states that had seceded into a Union and determined the lawful status of African Americans. The session crisis transpired after eleven states withdrew from the Union that legalized slavery activities thus, generating a war between the Northern and Southern states due to the slavery prohibition and authorization problem in the western territories. Subsequently, the reconstruction era intended to: transform the southern states back into full political participation in the Union, guarantee human rights and freedoms to former slaves, and create new relations between African Americans and White citizens. At the end of the reconstruction period, D.W. Griffith produced a film that reenacted the session crisis and reconstruction era in the film Birth of a Nation by portraying the post-war reconstruction perceptive and contemptible racism typecasts that incites numerous protests over time. The film was produced and directed by D.W. Griffith using advanced cinematography styles of the close-up shot techniques that substantially portrayed characters' emotions, thus making it a cornerstone of the contemporary cinematic techniques. Griffth utilized exemplary cinematography techniques to depict the historical presentation of the civil war and reconstruction period, which ignited white supremacy. For example, the film used close-up shots where he added emotion to the characters in the scene and zooming functions which enabled the camera to capture faces significantly, thus establishing a robust emotional connection with the audience. Moreover, Griffth used crosscutting to edit dramatic civil war battle scenes and static shots to intensify the film's power, impact, drama, and emotions, consequently making the firm the first advanced technological prowess cinema. Throughout the film, African Americans were portrayed as barbarians, hostile thugs, sexual predators, bad-mannered bullies, and ballot staffers. Thus, they were viewed as slaves and heathens, undeserving of being free and civilized, which fueled the white supremacist that already loathed black people to commit more atrocious crimes during the reconstruction period. Simultaneously, the beautiful work of cinematic realism in the film enticed and swayed viewers to negatively understand the reconstruction era leading to the increase of racism, for instance, through the rise of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), who voyaged to save the South from black rule during the era (D.W. Griffith). Nonetheless, most modern historians evaluated reconstruction differently from Griffth’s perspectives which creates significant differences to the American people. The contemporary historians evaluate the reconstruction period from the black point of view, which saw the African American people achieve significant progress equivalent to that of the white people. Historians like Perman and Murrell Taylor evaluated reconstruction as a period of astonishing political, social, and economic advancement for black individuals. For instance, modern historians view the era as one that led to the formation of public-school systems, yielding equal citizenship to blacks, increased efforts to reestablish the devastated southern economy, and increased attempts to establish multiracial political democracy from slavery. According to Perman and Murrell Taylor, the proud white people were forced to surrender their right to hold the African race in bondage, which they had considered a right for more than two centuries, and yield the equality of political right after the black people were freed. Modern historians argue that reconstruction began when the African American people were turned into freedmen and full citizens, which permitted them to play an active role in the South's political life. Unlike Griffith's film, which depicted reconstruction as the period that augmented racism and white supremacy, numerous modern historians such as Perman and Murrell Taylor interpret the era as one that grounded a defining moment for the African American people by encouraging equality and positive interpretations in the American people. The difference in reconstruction perspectives between modern historians and Griffth's film is crucial since they influence the thinking and talking of reconstruction today by the American community. Notably, D.W. Griffith’s 1915 Birth of a Nation film laid a foundation for modern cinema where viewers still cannot separate the technological prowess and the political perspectives of the cinema. Most film students today are regularly referred to Griffith's film to grasp the unique aspects of cinematography, such as the special effects and the editing expertise used in the film's production. While studying the technical knowledge of the film, students and the American public are obligated to understand and interpret the reconstruction as an era that represents racism and white supremacy as portrayed by D.W. Griffith. Comparatively, students and American citizens who learn the reconstruction from modern historians are obligated to understand and interpret the era from the viewpoint of the African American people, that is, as a period that led to the impartiality for the African race and the white people. ...